The other day I read a Pluralsight article titled Leadership guide: Your first 60 days as a CIO (registration required), and it made me think. While relationships are a big deal for CIOs, they also matter for everyone in IT. They matter to varying degrees based on your job role; nevertheless who you know and how well you know them makes a difference in your job and your career. Here is why I think in your career or your business, the further you go, the more those relationships matter.
Software architects are responsible for the technical solution to ensure it achieves the desired business outcomes. To do so requires broad technical and business knowledge with a deeper understanding in a couple technical areas. It requires being able to see the big picture. It requires the wisdom to evaluate different solutions to the problem. But most of all it requires really good communication skills to convey the solution. You can become a great software architect by being a great communicator.
The typical path to becoming a software architect begins with years spent in the trenches of hands-on software development. You’ve accumulated technical knowledge that is broad and deep. Along the way you’ve developed your communications skills. And I don’t just mean status reports. I mean by mentoring junior developers, by giving presentations to your peers on the knowledge you have gained in a specific tool, framework or language, and by interacting with systems and business analysts.
Now that you’ve become an architect, more people will look to you as an authority, as an expert. Now you’re starting to provide guidance on software design and the usage of tools and frameworks. You notice you have more influence. You are now responsible for the technical solution of the product your team is building. You are now in a position of leadership.